The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

Thorvin entered, the emblem in his hand lighting the way with its gleaming blue glow.

’I didn’t find the torch at the passage’s entrance... He’s an intruder who knows nothing about this corridor. That’s why he took the decoy torch,’ Thorvin thought, looking at the emblem in his hand.

”This is the true key of passage,” Thorvin said, raising the emblem before his eyes, and it became clear that the eyes of the dragon drawn upon it were what radiated that blue light.

Then suddenly, Thorvin froze mid-step as the water reached the height of his stomach.

For a moment, the water lay still.

Eerily still.

Thorvin stared into it with visibly anxious, trembling eyes.

And in the next moment, the reason for Thorvin’s fear of wading any deeper revealed itself.

The water began to churn and boil. Waves crashed against Thorvin’s face, submerging him completely, then subsided—only for a larger wave to slam into him again before rolling past behind him.

”It’s still here?!” Thorvin said in a voice hoarse with shock as he watched a strangely shaped skull begin to rise from the water before him, bit by bit, in terrifying fashion.

White horns emerged, followed by a head like a serpent’s but with more bone to it—wider eyes, a larger nose, and a far larger mouth filled with sharp, pointed teeth.

Hot smoke began streaming from its nostrils the moment its head fully breached the water, and its head alone was the size of Thorvin’s entire body.

The figure that emerged looked exactly like the black water dragon drawn on the engraving in Thorvin’s hand, and it fixed its eyes—black through and through, like its scales—on Thorvin’s, visible anger at the intruder written across its face.

The dragon’s head was entirely black except for its two white horns, lending its appearance a contrast both regal and imposing.

All this while, Thorvin stood frozen in place, unable to move his limbs in any way. It was not paralysis, but rather as though he could not believe his own eyes, and that disbelief had stalled the nerves commanding his limbs for those few moments.

For he should have raised the emblem the instant he saw the dragon.

And the longer he delayed, the greater the dragon’s fury grew.

Just as the dragon’s eyes flared violently wide and it began baring its teeth, readying itself to strike—

”Thorvin!”

Thorvin heard someone scream his name from behind him, snapping him out of the state of disbelief he had been trapped in.

And when Thorvin finally caught sight of the dragon’s mouth, open and closing in on him, he leapt back quickly, raising the small crest on the badge in his hand.

”Nightwhite!” Thorvin shouted the dragon’s name, holding the emblem steady before him.

Instantly, the dragon halted its charge and slowly closed its mouth, drawing back.

Inhale~

Exhale~

Thorvin caught his breath in rapid gulps, having just survived a lethal attack from Nightwhite.

For that, it turned out, was the water dragon’s name.

”Have you lost your mind, Thorvin? Losing your focus in front of a dragon of the Bloodline Bearer rank?” Karius said, shoving Thorvin hard in anger.

(Bloodline Bearer = the beast equivalent of a Sealbearer among humans.)

”It’s here.” Thorvin paid him no mind, his focus fixed on the black dragon’s body as it slowly sank back into the water before him.

”Wow, it’s here? Forgive me, I must be blind. I hadn’t noticed,” Karius replied, rolling his eyes.

”No, Karius, I’m serious... Nightwhite is here, and it still responds to the Fate Sect’s relic in my hand,” Thorvin said, raising the emblem toward Karius.

The relic was a circular metal emblem, drawn with a black dragon whose eyes glowed blue in a constant rhythm, like a beating heart.

”Yes, I can see that,” Karius replied, looking at the Fifth-Rank relic in Thorvin’s hand—one of the relics tied to one of the Fourteen Taboos, a relic the empire had entrusted to them to control Nightwhite in emergencies and protect this passage.

That emblem was among the empire’s national treasures, and without it, controlling Nightwhite would have been impossible even in a thousand years.

But their current problem was thorny.

Far, far thornier than that.

”So can you tell me, Karius, how the intruder got past Nightwhite?” Thorvin said, and Karius finally grasped it.

They had previously assumed that the intruder had come to take something from the fortress, then leave back toward the border.

But now, after the Final Evacuation Alarm had gone off, and with Nightwhite present here without a trace of any corpse in the place...

”He infiltrated the capital?!” Karius’s eyes flew wide in horrified realization.

”Yes. We allowed an intruder—the bearer of a relic of at least the Fourth Rank—to pass into the empire’s capital, the City of the Black Rose, without knowing his race or a single one of his features,” Thorvin confirmed, the light dimming in his eyes at the realization.

”Damn it!”

Boom!

Karius roared, punching the corridor wall with a force that shook the entire passage and left a clear crater in the wall beside him.

”A catastrophe... a catastrophe has befallen the Viera Empire,” Karius said slowly, closing his eyes.

”We must report this quickly. No—I’ll do the reporting. You go, Karius, and prepare an elite squad of your choosing,” Thorvin said, heading back the way they had come.

”Huh? You’re not planning to—” Karius began, before Thorvin cut him off.

”Yes. We’re sending an elite group to track the intruder,” Thorvin nodded, never breaking stride.

”Have you finally lost your mind, Thorvin? You’d send a group of Ninth and Eighth Rankers—with a Seventh Rank member at most—to chase an intruder carrying a Fourth-Rank relic? You are literally throwing them to their deaths,” Karius said, flatly refusing to sacrifice his soldiers when he knew where that road ended.

”Who said I’d ask them to catch him, or hunt him down to capture him?” Thorvin said.

”We only want a trace. Any trail he left behind, any change that appeared in the area... any thread that leads us to that damned bastard, Karius. And as fast as possible,” Thorvin said, the grave look never leaving his face.

’He has no intention of backing down,’ Karius realized, watching Thorvin walk away before turning his gaze to the dragon, which had not yet fully vanished from the place.

”How in the Creator’s name did he get past you?” Karius said, staring at the majestic sight before him.

”That doesn’t just require concealing one’s traces... that requires hiding the very essence of one’s soul from a dragon’s senses as well.”

Karius arrived at the realization, recalling that Thorvin had not sensed the intruder either, even from the adjacent room.

Which meant the dragon had found a body drifting by with no soul power and no trace left in its wake—and had regarded it as nothing more than some dead fish it might see in the ocean, posing no threat at all.

’And his carrying the torch proves he knew nothing of the passage’s rules... Lucky bastard.’

Karius shook his head, following his friend Thorvin out.

Had Ravian been here to see that overwhelming monster rise out of the water like that—and learned it had been right beside him as he swam through the darkness... he would have unlocked a brand-new phobia instead of a skill.